NSDate returning nil when converting from string

Question

I am trying to get the time of day from a date string. The following string should return 12:00AM.

2010-08-24 00:00:00 +0000

But using the following code, my NSDate object returns nil when it reaches the log statement. What is the issue here? Thanks!

NSDateFormatter *df = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[df setDateFormat:@"h:mma"];
NSDate *date = [df dateFromString:@"2010-08-24 00:00:00 +0000"];
NSLog(@"DATE: %@", [date description]);

Output: DATE: (null)

Its because the date format(String) your passing doen't match with the date format.... try using the same date format.... — Nagarajan Sathish, Jan 21 '15 at 02:24
possible duplicate of [create a NSDate from a string](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9769190/create-a-nsdate-from-a-string) — Hot Licks, Jan 21 '15 at 02:29
@HotLicks ...because they can just get someone on SO to look it up for them. — quellish, Jan 21 '15 at 02:47
@quellish - So why aren't the people providing the answers consulting the documentation? — Hot Licks, Jan 21 '15 at 21:20

D33pN16h7 · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-21T02:41:29.260

1

Try this one:

NSDateFormatter *df = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[df setDateFormat:@"YYYY-MM-dd hh:mm:ss ZZZZ"];
NSDate *date = [df dateFromString:@"2010-08-24 00:00:00 +0000"];
NSLog(@"DATE: %@", [date description]);

Cheers!

Tested on playgorund:

enter image description here

edited Jan 21 '15 at 02:41

answered Jan 21 '15 at 02:21

D33pN16h7

2,030
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Thanks, but how can I just return the time of day? – Pheepster Jan 21 '15 at 02:28
[NSDate date]; // returns today date – D33pN16h7 Jan 21 '15 at 02:29
(Convert "2010-01-01 23:42:00 +0000") – Hot Licks Jan 21 '15 at 02:50

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 21 '15 at 05:11

Well you can use the following procedure to extract time from the date string

1.Get NSDate object in its given format.

2.Set the NSDateFormatter object with the required format.

3.Get the date string in required format.

 - (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)
application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions
    {
    NSString *date = [self convertDate:@"2010-08-24 00:00:00 +0000"
                            fromFormat:@"yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss ZZZZ"
                              toFormat:@"hh:mm a"];

    NSLog(@"DATE: %@", [date description]);

    return YES;
}


- (NSString *)convertDate:(NSString *)inDateString
             fromFormat:(NSString *)fromFormat
               toFormat:(NSString *)toFormat
{
    NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = nil;
    NSString *outDateString = nil;
    NSDate *date = nil;

    dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
    [dateFormatter setDateFormat:fromFormat];

    date = [dateFormatter dateFromString:inDateString];

    [dateFormatter setDateFormat:toFormat];
    outDateString = [dateFormatter stringFromDate:date];

    return outDateString;
}

Your date format is incorrect (though not as incorrect as the others). — Hot Licks, Jan 21 '15 at 21:18

NSDate returning nil when converting from string

2 Answers2